Netanyahu Warns Kerry Against Iran Deal

Seven hours were set aside for talks between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The talks were supposed to be about the Israel-Palestine peace process, but quickly and predictably became about the Iran.

Kerry, ever eager to placate Netanyahu, downplayed the chances of a deal, saying that he believes “no deal is better than a bad deal” and that the US remains distrustful of Iran.

The bottom-line of the exchange is that there remains a wide gap between the US and Israel on the question of Iran, and that the US has hinted at a willingness to allow Iran some civilian program, so long as it limited far more than required under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Israel, by contrast, has a shifting sands approach to its position on Iran, staking out whatever position is more than Iran is willing to offer and arguing anything short of that is unacceptable.

Nothing new there. One of my first foreign policy memories relating to Israel is of Menachem Begin publicly announcing that Israel "will not allow" the US to sell AWACs to Saudi Arabia.

curmudgeonvt

I couldn't envision spending 7 hours listening to Netanyahoo blather, bluster and whine. And it's unclear whose script Kerry is working off. The Administration sounds interested in coming to an agreement with Iran but then Kerry makes a statement like this. The optics are skewed.

If Kerry is off the reservation and working at cross purposes with the Administration, does Obama have the stones to yank Kerry back in line?

Kerry is the poster-boy for 'obsequious'. But Kerry is the dutiful meatpuppet if he is anything.

VietNamWarVet

Benjamin Netanyahu – proof positive that 'Satan' lives in Israel.

ML3

You almost half-wish his bite is as bad as his bark so he can start something and then get slapped down and humiliated publicly, so all that's left for him to actually do is crawl away with his tale between his legs.
But then what else can you expect from the king of such a place?

Bruce Morgan

Grand glorious leader demands compliance from the puppet of the United States of West Israel. The true crap is that he is likely to get it, ah-gain.

JDonald

How can any country demand that a nearby country refrain from benefitting from modern science? Until Israel begins to comply with the UN Security Council resolutions that deal with its occupation of Palestinian lands, it is obvious that the bad player in the Middle East is Israel. When will the Western World get serious with this bad apple?

Jeff

Shame the US doesn't have the gall to tell Israel to signs onto the the NTP, then we can talk about Iran.